EditorialWelcome to an issue of big feet and one-eyed monsters – and that’s just the stylised challenge! We kick this month’s issue off with an interview with an artist we’ve come to know through the production of Digital Art Masters: Volume 4; he’s an illustrator living in Mississippi (my favourite word) who has worked for the likes of White-Wolf Publishing and Fantasy Flight Games to name just a couple of his clients to date. We’re talking about Bradford Rigney, whose artwork tore us into pieces when we had to choose which of his great images to feature in our upcoming book project. Luckily, we managed to get this interview with Brad where we can happily show you his full portfolio on as many pages as we like, because we’re pretty greedy like that (p.7). Our second interviewee is no stranger to 2DArtist; in fact, he’s been in our galleries, and written making of articles and tutorials for us in the past; he’s now on the lookout for full-time work in the industry so we thought it was about time we got to know him better and let the world know, too! Check out our interview with the very talented concept artist, Robin Olausson on p.17.

John Wu invites is into the pages of his sketchbook this month, where we stumble upon all kinds of weird and wonderful things, from stylised characters and cars, to interiors, mechs, ships and weapons. One thing that these all have in common is that they have all had the privilege of being drawn by the hand of John Wu – one of the industry’s greats (p.31). (If you like what you see from John then check out the interview we ran with him back in the April 2007 issue!)

From sketchbooks to tutorials, Hoi Mun Tham takes us this month from the initial concepting stage of his futuristic digger vehicle (featured in the February 2009 issue) through the refinement of his chosen concept (p.65). Dwayne Vance will be back next month with the final instalment of his interpretation of this series’ brief, so be sure to stop by again next month to check that out. (Mun’s final chapter will be featured in the June 2009 issue.) Our speed painting brief, “As night fell, the darkness came alive” has been tackled by Ehsan Dabbaghi and 2DArtist regular, Emrah Elmasli (p.71), and Chee Ming Wong brings us a healthy dose of space painting – this month, we’re painting a space battle scene! Chee even goes as far as to jot down a storyboard; it’s a great tutorial for those who are keen to get into the industry as a concept artist as it’s packed full of interesting insights from Chee, who let’s not forget is the CEO of his own digital art studio in London, UK. We could all learn a thing or two from Chee’s commitment to the industry and digital art community (p.82)!

In the interest of diversity, we bring you a stormy matte painting in our making of section this month, created by Dmitry Mitsuk (p.97); Ejiwa A. Ebenebe also talks us through the painting of her stunning female character in her piece titled, Snowfall (p.105). Our gallery features plenty of great talent, from the likes of gallery regular Ioan Dumitrescu, as well as Nykolai Aleksander, Andrée Wallin and Mathieu Leyssenne (p.39).

Well, I hope this month’s offerings keep you busy until next month’s issue hits the virtual shelves in May. Keep us posted with your own art creations – we welcome gallery submissions and interest from those looking for freelance tutorial work. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the April issue. We look forward to hearing from you! Ed.